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Green Christmas

Sir David Attenborough made a striking statement in his evidence to the Parliamentary committee. "Wasting Energy", he said, "is morally wrong".

He has a point. Even Lapland has no snow this year and it is now thought that 2006 was the warmest year on record. The evidence for a significant warming of the planet taking place is now substantial.

There is also increasing evidence that global warming is a man made phenomenon.

In nature, it is very rare to find waste- there are niches for life virtually everywhere on the planet. Therefore, the dumping of excess waste heat is bound to cause serious imbalances.

It is incumbent upon humanity to live our lives in a manner that respects the balance of nature.
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Comments

Anonymous said…
I take issue with the 'man made' aspect.

I think its still far from clear what are the main causes. Certainly human action is a contributing factor, and we should be aiming to reduce our contribution (ideally to zero), but I am very reluctant to remove natural causes from the list so easily.

(The UN has recently reduced their estimates of the human contribution, the arctic ice shelves have been shown to have receded before: This indicates a non-human agent at work as well as humans)

Then again, I broadly agree with your general point, although what the balance of nature actually is and how to achieve it is very very debatable...
1:26 pm
Anonymous said…
Consul are you giving up your MP ambitions then. Perhaps with your love of all things celtic you should try for Swansea West there is a vacancy (your last chap hopped off to the Tories) and with Alan Williams standing down should be an excellent chance of a Lib Dem gain. There is however a catch you will have to do a Willott and get Tories to vote tactically, which might mean toning down some your all Tories are somewhere to the right of Attila the Hun invective. Feel you can manage it. If so I'm sure Swansea Lib Dems will be delighted to take your call...


Lepidus
1:42 pm
Cicero said…
Err- Don't recall ever launching that kind of attack on the Conservatives: the problem I have with Conservatives is that they are not ideological enough and this is causing some very strange ideas to be accepted...

In any event, I have no connection with Wales, and while that might not stop Lembit it does stop me :-)
1:47 pm
Anonymous said…
I wish to take issue with your "waste is rare" in nature thesis. On the contrary redundancy, waste and inefficiency are rather common within individual organisms. What gives the appearance of efficiency is that in time another organism usually comes along to take advantage of the waste of another and over long periods of time these relationships find an equilibrium with the rest of the ecosystem

The incremental nature of evolution (as opposed to intelligent design) practically ensures inefficiency. Take DNA as an example. The majority (have seen 75% mentioned before) of your DNA does absolutely nothing. It is a carried over relic of previous incarnations of your ancestors. It is non-coding, it isn’t structural, it has no purpose other than as an academic tool (the rate of random variations within the noncoding DNA is predictable and is a useful tool for calculating when species shared common ancestors and therefore mapping evolution). Why then do are cells waste so much time and energy replicating it every time a cell divides? Because the biological processes of cell division cannot differentiate between useful and non-useful DNA is the how and not the why. The ‘why’ is that nature is not designed it evolves and that means what you get is the first system that works and not an ideal efficient system unless luck would have it that that is the first one to evolve.
9:33 am
Anonymous said…
Ah Lembit as if we didn't already have Charlotte Church and Sian Lloyd aka the future Mrs Opik to live down, you Lib Dems give us Lembit as well! Still my point is valid I think, many Lib Dems will likely be elected on the back of "Tory Votes" as was John Leech, so you are wise to seek out Labour held seats, as they will be far the easier pickings. You have I think adopted the classic Lib Dem obsession with the Tories at the point when the easier pickings are elsewhere even if some like Gidley weren't hammering the final nail into their political careers themselves, hence your strident tones. Excuse my cynicism but if the Tories were more "ideological" in your view you would be lamnbasting them equally hard for being "extreme", come to think of it that makes you a perfect Lib Dem MP Consul! I look forward your new Philippics in the HoC.

Lepidus.
1:24 pm
Anonymous said…
How funny the other anonymous joked about the "future Mrs Öpik" as we're seeing all of it on the Sunday papers...well, maybe Cymru is not the place to run for this coming snap election as a LibDem! Cymrulastel on väga pikad mälestused, Lembit!
8:24 pm
chris said…
It is incumbent upon humanity to live our lives in a manner that respects the balance of nature.

Why? If changing the balance of nature increases utility then surely that is better than not.
12:23 pm
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